Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition) - Fionn Davenport [450]
According to the legend of Táin Bó Cúailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley), Queen Maeve (Medbh) had her palace at Cruachan. The Oweynagat Cave (Cave of the Cats), believed to be the entrance to the Celtic otherworld, is also nearby. If you dare to enter, look closely at the stones by the entrance where you’ll find the 1911 graffiti of Ireland’s first president, Douglas Hyde.
Tulsk is 10km west of Strokestown on the N5. Bus Éireann’s frequent Dublin to Westport route stops right outside the visitor centre.
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BOYLE & AROUND
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A quiet town at the foot of the Curlew Mountains, Boyle is a scenic and worthwhile stop, home to beautiful Boyle Abbey, a 4000-year-old dolmen, the hands-on King House Interpretive Centre, and an island-scattered forest park.
If you’re here at the end of July, you can catch the lively Boyle Arts Festival ( 071-966 3085; www.boylearts.com), which features music, theatre, storytelling and contemporary Irish art exhibitions.
History
The history of Boyle is the history of the King family. In 1603 Staffordshire-born John King was granted land in Roscommon with the aim of ‘reducing the Irish to obedience’. Over the next 150 years, through canny marriages and cold-blooded conquests, his descendants made their name and fortune, becoming one of the largest landowning families in Ireland. The town of Boyle grew around their estate.
King House was built in 1730, and in 1780 the family moved to the grander Rockingham House, built in what is now Lough Key Forest & Activity Park, but destroyed by fire in 1957.
Actress Maureen O’Sullivan (Mia Farrow’s mother) was born in a house on Main St opposite the Bank of Ireland in 1911.
Information
Tourist office ( 071-966 2145; King House; 10am-5.30pm Mon-Sat Jun–early Sep)
Úna Bhán Tourism Centre ( 071-966 3033; www.unabhan.net; 9am-6pm daily May-Aug, 9am-5pm Mon-Fri Sep-Apr) A local cooperative in the grounds of King House.
Sights & Activities
KING HOUSE INTERPRETIVE CENTRE
After the King family moved to Lough Key, the imposing Georgian mansion King House became a military barracks for the fearsome Connaught Rangers. The county council bought the property in 1987, and spent several years and €3.8 million turning it into the inspired King House Interpretive Centre ( 071-966 3242; www.kinghouse.ie; Main St; adult/child/family €7/4/18; 10am-6pm Apr-Sep). Sinister-looking dummies from various eras tell the turbulent history of the Connaught kings, the town of Boyle and the King family, including a grim tale of tenant eviction during the Famine. Kids can try on replica ancient Irish cloaks, brooches and leather shoes, write with a quill, play a regimental drum and build a vaulted ceiling from specially designed blocks.
The mansion’s sheltered walled courtyard hosts an organic market ( 10am-2pm Sat) selling a fantastic array of organic meat, fish, vegetables, cheeses, chutneys and breads, as well as hot soups to warm you up.
BOYLE ABBEY
Gracing the River Boyle is the finely preserved (and reputedly haunted) Boyle Abbey ( 071-966 2604; www.heritageireland.ie; adult/child/family €3/1/8; 10am-6pm Easter–late Oct, last admission 45 min before closing). Founded in 1161 by monks from Mellifont in County Louth, the abbey captures the transition from Romanesque to Gothic style, best seen in the nave, where a set of arches in each style face each other. Unusually for a Cistercian building, figures and carved animals decorate the capitals to the west. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the abbey was occupied by the military and became Boyle Castle; the stone chimney on the southern side of the abbey, which was once the refectory, dates from that period.
Guided 40-minute tours of the abbey are available on the hour until 5pm.
LOUGH KEY FOREST PARK
Sprinkled with small islands, Lough Key Forest Park ( 071-967 3122; www.loughkey.ie; forest admission free, parking €4; 10am-6pm Mon-Fri, to 8pm Sat & Sun Jul & Aug, 10am-6pm Mar-Jun &